Tribe to lose historic lands if dam is raised In this valley where four rivers meet, the Winnemen Wintu tribe fished and farmed for centuries, its villages always near the water's edge. Much of that heritage was lost during California's era of dam building. The tribe's ancestral land in Northern California was submerged when the federal government built a 602-foot dam downstream of their ceremonial and prayer grounds in 1945. Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering enlarging Shasta Dam as a way to boost California's water supply. If allowed to go forward, the project would flood what little remaining land once belonged to a tribe whose name translates as "Middle Water."....